Dark Paradise
by The Happiest Fishy
Summary: No one compares to you, I'm scared that you won't be waiting on the other side. A seemingly peacful city is at the brink of something big. Riku's world will crash around him, whilst he attempts to put it back together. Au, Yaoi, Dark/angst/romance/Adventure. Rated M just incase.
1. Chapter 1

Dark Paradise

_a/n- The title and chapter are both named after Lana Del Rey songs, obviously the songs belong to her. I do not own them, or Kingdom Hearts, as much as I may want to. I started writing this months and months ago and recently had an odd surge of inspiration. Honestly I can't really tell you what the stories going to be about, but I think this will be a dark angst/adventure/romance, Yaoi will be included, so don't read if you don't like? Reviews are much appreciated. _

**Lucky One's**

Radiant Garden, a beautiful castle city floating in a sea of glassy still water, ruled over by the ornate castle Hollow Bastion, twirling spires and delicate towers watched their city from above. Radiant Garden was the kind of place you saw on postcards and wished you were at. The town itself was surrounded by a tall, round wall that ran a perfect circle around the castle town, winding streets and staircases lead you from the main streets in between the buildings to a small courtyards or parks. On the outsides of the wall, bridges lead to gardens with small pagoda's or summerhouses that sat free from the battlements at water level. The castle itself was not open to the public, large golden gates barred the way up a steep flight of stairs that lead to the summit of the hill, at the base of the castle. Although the castle was guarded and protected, it appeared to contain nothing, there was no apparent reigning monarchy, albeit somebody had to be running the show. Hollow Bastion- Empty Castle. One could only imagine what the inside was like if the exterior of it was anything to go by.

One of the most beautiful kingdoms in the world, with a very low crime rate, yet Riku often found himself lying awake at night with no damned good reason. He decided he would get up and dress himself by the time 5am rolled around. A black vest top clung to his lean yet muscular frame, showing a tiny bit of his midriff. Baggy jeans for comfort. It was always pleasantly warm in Radiant Garden, he would have no need for a jacket. He caught sight of himself in the mirror and finger-combed his hair, he really should cut it soon.

Through the main city gates out onto the open gardens, were usually too busy for Riku, but this morning they were eerily quite. If he continued to the right, over the bridges and through many of the other gardens, until he was at the north facing one, at the back of the city. He stood at the very edge of the garden, his back to the city. No walls blocked his way to the water, the ground simply sloped away. Coloured flowers danced in waves as the breeze passed them by. Long pale silver hair cascaded over his shoulders, gently billowing about his face. It wasn't that he didn't have friends, he did, and he loved them. But Riku also loved his own company, and enjoyed a balance of both. This was his favourite place to do so. Even with a breeze, the water remained still, like a mirror, reflecting all that was behind him. Radiant Garden was certainly an apt name.

Something about the stillness of the city set the silvery haired teen uneasy. The Gardens were no less beautiful than normal, the sky was its usual shade of blue tinted with lilac, everything was as it always had been. But, his usual haunting spot was not welcoming him as normal, as if unseen eyes were glaring at his intrusion.

School was a place Riku did not enjoy, it wasn't even that he couldn't do it, he just hated the majority of the teachers and lessons. If it weren't for the social side of school and Kairi's consistent early morning wakeup calls and bangs on his door, he probably wouldn't go. This morning was like every other, and at ten to eight Kairi was knocking his bedroom door.

"Get your lazy ass out of bed Riku!" However, Riku had been awake since four am and dressed since five-thirty, he'd not even got home until seven. He opened the door promptly, to her surprise. They continued their morning routine and made their way to Radiant Academy.

Science, with Professor Vexen. A man who constantly complained that he was better than some high school teacher. Piercing, and currently bulging with rage, emerald eyes stared down the class. He was angrily once again, explaining to the class that they should feel privileged to be taught by a man of his intellectual calibre. Ranting and raving about how he was more than just a professor, he was a _doctor_. A good half hour later, his hollowed cheeks seemed to pale from their angry shade of red as he apparently had it all out of his system. He sank into his desk seat, sweeping his long dirty blonde hair off his forehead, allowing the rest to frame the sides of his face. He began to teach the lesson (angrily) leaving the class to ponder more interesting matters. Riku always sat with Kairi, at the back left hand side of the class room, where Vexen was far less likely to notice them chat, or fall asleep. Riku was still tired from his early morning walk and wasn't in the mood for idle chit-chat, instead he watched the rest of the class generally not pay any attention to their professor, much to his amusement.

Riku and Kairi walked together for the next class. Kairi, if it weren't for this girl he probably wouldn't be the person he was today. Kairi and her grandmother had taken Riku in when he was young, Kairi was more than just an adoptive sister to him, she was his best friend, although he had two. After the sad passing of Kairi's grandmother a couple of years ago, the two had become dependant on each other and thus inseparable. As they walked she chatted animatedly about he disdain for Vexen. Riku smirked at her.

Kairi was about a head shorter than Riku, her deep mahogany red hair fell across her forehead and bounced in layers around her face, falling a three or four inches below her collar bones. Much too her annoyance, as it was 'Unfair how her hair had hardly grown' and Riku's was 'practically half way down his back'. It really was true, Riku hadn't cut his hair for years, pale silver cascaded down his back and framed his face, partially covering his eyes. Ocean blue eyes sparkled brightly against that deep red.

"He's just so up himself!" Her blue eyes narrowed in annoyance. "Why the hell is he a teacher if he's so much 'Better than this'?" She finger quotation the latter half of her sentence.

"I hate him too, ignore him Kai." Riku's ever consistent tone of nonchalance hung in his voice.

"And this lesson too! I hate _Zexion._" venom lingered in her voice as she spoke his name. In fairness to Kairi, the English Literature tutor Zexion was especially unpleasant to Kairi. Saving his most difficult to answer questions for her, he never acknowledged her unless he knew he could make a fool of her. "He doesn't even look old enough to teach! I swear he's no older than us!"

He just nodded in agreement, he was tired this morning, and as much as he loved her, Kairi's angry rants could last a whole day if they were fuelled by too much agreement.

Sora was waiting for them outside Zexions classroom, his spiky chocolate hair fell across his forehead, it wildly spiked out in random directions, only Kairi had the ability to coax it into anything conventional. Sora, Riku's other closest friend, lived on the other side of the school with his twin brother Roxas. Although Riku got on very well with Roxas, he classed Sora as a best friend, whilst Roxas was a very good one.

"Hey!" Kairi beamed at Sora, momentarily forgetting her disdain for their tutor.

"Hi guys..." Sora yawned through his word.

Riku just smiled, he found greetings awkward.

"_Why, are you loitering out here? Get inside and stop holding up the lesson." _A chillingly emotionless voice said quietly from the classroom doorway. Sora jumped and spun round, snapping out of his sleep state. Riku swore he could practically hear Kairi's jaw grinding.

They walked in and sad down next to Olette, another member of their friendship group, although she was closer to Roxas. She smiled brightly all the same at them. Olette was a pretty girl, with deep emerald eyes that challenged even Vexen's. Her hair was the same shade as Sora's, which she brought forwards into to large ringlets.

Zexion surveyed his class with casual dislike through his long steel blue bangs. He was a relatively short man, who looked no older than 18, his hair hung over half his face so that only one of his violet-blue eyes could be seen.

"Last week we looked at..."  
And Riku switched off... Over time he had perfected hiding the fact nobody was home when the lights were on.

"A day like today calls for ice-cream!" Sora cheered as they walked out the school gates. admittedly, it had been a long day, and the weather was nice.

"I've never met anyone who thinks with their stomach as much as you." Kairi looked at him with mock disdain.

"Aw guys! Please come I promised I'd meet my brother and the others for ice cream!" Sora wailed.

"Ice cream would be pretty good, its crazy hot today." Riku was pulling his hair into a high ponytail to keep his neck from sweating.

They walked to the little town square and located the ice cream parlour. Roxas was already inside, he was almost a mirror image of Sora, brilliantly deep oceanic blue eyes, smiled up at them as they entered. Roxas was a little smaller than Sora, although slightly more muscular, his hair was a sandy shade of blonde and fell just before his ears and covered most of his forehead, it was carefully constructed into a spiky swirl at the front. He was sat with Ollette, the girl from their English Literature class. Hayner and Pence sat on the opposite side of the table, Hayner was a tall lean boy with dirty blonde hair and an unhealthy obsession for camouflage clothing. His best friend Pence contrasted sharply in appearance with a shorter stocky build and very dark brown hair.

"Hi guys!" Ollete beamed up at them. Riku had always liked the girl, more so than Roxas's other friends, Hayner was opinionated and brash, while pence was good natured but ultimately a bit of a pushover.

"Hi!" Sora and Kairi said in unison whilst Riku gave a tilt of the head as his greeting. The others were already eating ice cream so they placed their orders, Sora of course opted for chocolate and Kairi went for strawberry... Riku ordered plain vanilla.

"Oh my god Riku live a little!" Kairi teased at his bowl of ice-cream.

"Kai, you always order strawberry, let the boy eat his ice cream." Ollette laughed.

* * *

Kairi and Riku were walking home together, everyone had parted separate ways and headed for home after their ice cream. Yet again Riku found himself feeling on edge. Something just didn't feel right. The uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach tensed as he swore he saw a figure in an ally out the corner of his eye.

"Riku what;s wrong?" the redhead was looking at her friend with concern, Riku had been tense the whole way home and she'd just seen him flinch.

"Nothing Kai" Riku smiled at her, he was not going to worry her with his unusually nervous disposition. "I'm just really tired, lets just get home." Even in the likely event that his senses were just off today, he would feel much better when they were safe at home.

_A/n- I know it seams a bit 'slice of life' at the moment but I've done this to show the contrast as the story progresses. Its actually taken quite a long time to put this together but I hope anyone that reads this enjoys it, and if you take the time to read the chapter, a review (good or bad) on your thoughts are greatly appreciated. I'm afraid I can't give you much of a time scale on when the next update will be because I'm non committal and moody, but reviews will spur me on to write more._


	2. We Were Born to Die

**Dark Paradise  
**

_A/n Stepped up the drama a little bit but hopefully by the fourth or fifth chapter will be drama fuelled. I hope you like this chapter and the chapter title belongs to Lana Del Ray. Hopefully if i've done this right you'll at least feel a twinge of sadness by the end of the chapter._

**We Were Born to Die**

Riku awakened that night to a blindingly painful headache. It was 4:12am. He'd been feeling tense all night. Radiant garden was always a peaceful place, he never felt uneasy, especially since moving into Kairi's Grandmothers home, but just lately? Riku just felt like he was waiting for something to happen, and it wasn't a good kind of something.

He got out of bed and opened his window, the cool night air caressing his splitting forehead, gifting him a temporary release from the pain. His stomach dropped as he noticed a figure out the corner of his eye. A form fitting, near floor length leather coat billowed behind the figure as its hooded head turned once towards the window, and then disappeared into the shadows. Needless to say Riku was scared. Really fucking scared.

* * *

Realistically, Riku decided, he had no reason to be so worked up over one day of feeling slightly uneasy and seeing one odd person in a black coat. Okay so it had been 4:12am, but every town had its weirdo's right? Even Radiant Garden.

'Riku! Oh my god Riku wake up!" Kairi was half screaming from downstairs.

Riku jumped out of bed, dressed less than decent, in a pair of boxers and ran downstairs. Kairi was stood by the window, looking outside. Seeing she wasn't in any real kind of danger Riku sighed with relief, man this stuff was really getting to him.

"Seriously Kai, I practically shit myself what's so urgent?" His irritation at the awakening overriding his relief for her safety.

"Just look." Shock hung in her voice. Clearly she had been in the middle of getting ready herself as she stood in the small lounge in a pair of shorts and a vest top, her usual sleeping attire. Humouring her, Riku dragged himself to the window. His eyes widened. For a moment, Riku thought pale pink snow was falling from the sky and littering the ground. It then became apparent, that it had come from the tree's. The cobbled roads and pavements were cracked and split. Sakura tree's appeared to have burst from the ground, destroying the quaint little street. Although the ground was covered with pink, none of the tree's were even slightly bare.

"What the fuck?" Kairi slapped him around the back of the head.

"You know Granny hated swearing."

"Sorry Kai, but seriously? What happened? What are they?"  
"Those are called trees Riku." Kairi's voice was deadpan, but she smirked at him. Riku grabbed his phone and quickly snapped a photo out the window.

* * *

"Really Kairi, just drop out of school, you're a comedy genius."

Sora Hikari, stared out of his dorm room window at the cherry blossoms. He looked at the sleeping mass on the top bunk, he was fairly certain Roxas would be annoyed at being woken up earlier than necessary to look at pink tree's. He smirked as he imagined Kairi's reaction to everything, and how disgruntled and confused Riku would be. He dressed himself in some loose fitting shorts and a slim fit powder blue t-shirt and stepped out into the hall. The dorms were not cheap, the décor certainly reflected the price. He called the lift and stepped in. The doors opened into the lobby. Art deco in architecture, with a high ceiling and gold geometric wall panels and a fancy tiled floor. It was all unnecessary if you asked Sora, but it was pleasant none the less.

He stepped out the doors and stood in the tepid morning air. A blonde girl sat on some of the stairs holding a lit cigarette, looking at the mass of pink.

"Rikku!" Sora beamed at her as he sat down next to her.

"Hey Sora" Her brows were uncharacteristically furrowed and her voice was monotone. Her spiky ponytail hung down her back, beaded braids looped around a blue bandanna. Rikku was from a place Sora couldn't pronounce somewhere in a desert and nearly always wore a bikini top with a mini skirt.

"How crazy is this?" Sora gestured to the sakura petals around them, half smirking.

"Where I come from, the locals always spoke of the cherry blossoms as an omen." She looked worried.

"Huh?"  
"My grandfather told me, when he was little, his grandfather told him, hundreds of cherry blossoms sprang up all over the city. Then a man would come, he called him dra knylavim yccyceh. After that, the pmylg luydc would follow, and they overthrew the Asbanun, lotsa people left the island after that. I've heard other people tell the story slightly differently, but they all end the same. And they all start with cherry blossoms." He native tongue spilled out words he couldn't understand.

"Rikku what do those words mean?"

"Dra knylavim yccyceh, I believe, would roughly translate to the graceful assassin. Pmylg luydc means black coats."

* * *

Sora gulped her words as he re thought her sentence with the English translation. "Do you really believe him?"  
"I don't know Sora, I used to think it was all just a story but, this is exactly how his story started." The warning bell chimed inside the dorms, 20 minutes till class, they got up and went back inside to retrieve their bags.

First period entailed phys ed. And as the academy field was covered in tree's and petals, the class was taken into the sports hall. As the ran laps around the hall Sora looked at Riku.

"Rikku, the other one, she told me something pretty scary this morning." Sora stated bluntly,

"About what?" Riku's aquamarine eyes locked with Sora's blue for a moment. Sora stifled a blush.

"Riku Inoue! How many times do I have to tell you that god damned hair has to be tied up for my class!" Mr Leonhart bellowed across the room. Riku didn't respond verbally but pulled his hair into a relatively high ponytail. The shorter layers fell back around Riku's face as they had done before.

Sora looked back at Riku and continued.

"You know that desert city she grew up in?"  
"Al Bhed?" Riku knew his geography, Al Bhed was a desert island to the east, it had only one city by the same name, although small the city was one of the leading in the world when it came to technology and internationally recognised as such.

"Yeah! She said a long time ago in that city, cherry blossoms appeared and then lots of men came and destroyed the Asab-something." His brows were knitted in worry.  
"Asbanun " Riku corrected "Its the leader of The Al Bhed royal family. Whatever these cherry blossoms are, I doubt that they will be some kind of omen." Riku gave Sora a rare reassuring smile.

* * *

"Yeah Sora, Rikku's a lovely girl and everything, but she's a bit loopy." Roxas piped up. Sora didn't respond but there had been something about her uncharacteristically worried demeanour that had settled uneasy in Sora. Little did Sora know, that Riku felt it too.. Even if he didn't really believe it.

"They have decided." Zexion's monotone voice echoed through the empty classroom.

"They've took their time! I'm sick of posing as a pathetic lowly teacher!"

"We were told to blend in _Vexen." _Zexion spat out his name, he had little time for the hotheaded fool. He allowed his emotions to get in the way of their task. "Marluxia has sent the omen forth. Three days and we can give up these disguises."

"Marluxia is a fool. Why is he so important to the organization?"  
Truth be told Zexion didn't care much for Marluxia and his theatrics either. But he would always remain openly impartial. Did it even matter why? Those were the orders.

"Marluxia is valued for his prowess in assassination, he is second to none in the organization when it comes to this. You would do well to remember, that given the order he could have us both dead and we'd be powerless against him."

"His stupid flowers wouldn't stand a chance against my ice!"  
"I refuse to engage in this, he could be listening for all we know and I will not be murdered for your foolish inflated self opinion." Zexion turned on his heels and left the classroom. Vexen was a fool to think he could badmouth the other members and not get any comeuppance.

"Do not think you are so above me that they would not have you eliminated once your use is up!" Vexen's rage echoed.

That of course, was why Zexion intended to continue being useful. He rounded the corner almost crashed into one of his students. Rikku Gullwing, the Al Bhed girl.

"One should not eavesdrop." He looked at her with only mild disdain, he really didn't hate her that much. However, judging by the conversations he'd overheard that stupid redhead discuss with the boy with the stupid gravity defying hair, the girl knew too much, especially if that was coupled with the conversation she may have just overheard, she could be an issue.

"Excuse me?" If the girl was playing dumb, she did it well.

"I believe in your lunch hour it is customary for students to go and eat lunch." He stated coolly as he walked away. Yes, Marluxia would have to be informed. An unfortunate casualty but necessary, besides, there would be many once the three days were up.

Rikku hurried to the lunch hall, fear etched into every fibre of her body. If Professor Zexion was on to her, she was a dead girl walking, she was sure of it. She barley noticed the girl she'd crashed into as she rushed to the cafeteria.

"Rikku!" Kairi's pretty smile soon turned to a concerned frown. "Rikku what's wrong!"  
"O-oh h-hey Kairi" Rikku stuttered. "Nothing! Haha! I was just thinking too hard! You know how dangerous that can be, huh? Haha" She forced her usual bubbly attitude. "Anyway! I gotta go, see ya soon Kairi!" Rikku ran off intent in heading to her dorm room, fuck school she was going home. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she wandered if 'see ya soon' would actually be a lie. Would she see any of her friends again?

"Oh, okay" Kairi frowned as the blonde disappeared around the corner.

Rikku stepped into her dorm room, she had paid a little extra to live in a single room, so that she didn't have to share a bathroom. Sure she was as happy-go-lucky as they came, but a girls gotta have her own bathroom. Her room was decent sized, the shelves on the wall contained books on Al Bhed Machina and small machina robots, albeit they were all turned off. The carpet was pale cream and the walls painted baby blue, french doors guarded by cream curtains opened up onto a tiny balcony. The extra money had been worth it really. She slung her bag onto the floor by the desk and slumped onto her bed. She needed to pack a bag and get out of here, she sat and pondered where she would go when the exhaustion of her stress hit her, but she couldn't fall asleep, she didn't have time.

She awoke to a cool breeze on her bare skin. She looked up. the french doors were sightly open, pink petals littered her room and she rolled her eyes. As if she'd not shut them. Now she was going to have to pick out all these stupid Sakura petals. The seriousness of the situation hit her, she had fell asleep and it was dark out! She needed to leave. She started to stand and froze. Fear puncher her in the stomach and she couldn't breathe. A muscular silhouette stood in the french doors. Pure fright locked her in place as she gaped at the shadow in the window. Her heart almost stopped as she noticed what appeared to be a scythe glistening in his hand.

"Rikku." A smooth silky voice slid into the room and made her shudder. She couldn't reply. Fear told her not to. This was it, he'd come for her. She knew to much and he was here to murder her. To kill her. She ran to the door but in a flurry of sakura petals the man stood before her. "I can't let you go that way." The sadistic smile hung in his voice. She backed away, and then charged, shoving the man aside and throwing herself out the door. "Running will do you no good." She half ran, half staggered, crashing into the walls as she reached for the stairwell door, wrenching it open. She ran down what seemed like hundreds of flights of stairs, hardly able to gulp down enough air. To scared to look behind her. She slipped and fell down the last flight, scrambling to her feet and running into the lobby, tears rolling down her face she burst into the cool night air.

"Shit!" Her voice was hoarse from terror. The tall man stood amongst the sakura petals. Pale pink bangs and long feathered hair framed his face and neck. His floor length black coat billowed in a non-existent wind. He smiled a glittering smile at her, his lean frame stretched to full height. Sakura petals swirled around in a small tornado and his green and pink scythe formed in his hands. "Please don't kill me! Please I won't tell anyone!" She sank to her knee's and wailed. "I won't I promise! Don't" Her eyes darted around but nobody was there. Running really would get her nowhere, he'd always find her.  
"I will end this suffering. You will not cry any more." He looked at her with pity, such an undignified end for one so pretty. Marluxia valued beauty, such a waist.

* * *

She let out a horrified scream of terror as the scythe swung towards her, but nothing more could escape her lips.

_A/n Poor Rikku :( I wove her into the plot as character to show some insight to Sora but it just seemed so right to have her picked off by the organization. I want them to be brutal and frightening in this story so realistically they would have had her killed for knowing too much. I do have more plans regarding this for later chapters though! I promise this will become a yaoi between Sora and Riku but the plot is not about love. I hope you like the chapter and I'd love a review if you've bothered to read :)_

_Thanks for reading!_


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